In the first half of the 19th century, fugitive hunted slaves were taught
to look for the North Star as they fled toward free states and Canada,
inspired by the song "Follow The Drinking Gourd." Schoolchildren
at the elementary and middle school level often take lightly the historic
period of the Underground Railroad. Many think that it was some type
of mechanical device, since it claimed "stations," "conductors,"
and "passengers." In fact, this period of United States history
saw many slaves fleeing North toward Canada, or South toward Mexico
or Florida, to freedom. Slave masters fearing loss of their capital
resources  the slaves  made every effort to keep slaves
totally illiterate and devoid of an understanding of the geography of
their environment. Itinerant workers were sent to the South to teach
slaves routes of escape encoded in song.

Through the activities presented in this lesson, students will be called
upon to examine the coded messages in the song "Follow The Drinking
Gourd," taught to the slaves by Peg Leg Joe, along with the song's
links to the Underground Railroad. Students will examine video segments,
visit Web sites, and participate in hands-on activities in order to
concretize the experiences slaves had on their hopeful road to freedom.
This lesson cannot cover the scope of history of the Underground Railroad,
but can serve to stimulate teachers and students to explore with deeper
understanding aspects of African-American history often omitted in our
social studies textbooks.

Students will be able to:

Contextualize the story in the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd"

Determine coded messages within the song that led slaves to freedom

Examine a map of the U.S. to determine routes of the Underground
Railroad

Explain how the geography of the routes could have created difficulties
for fleeing slaves

Make predictions of routes slaves may have taken along the Underground
Railroad and the possible dangers they faced

Describe the role the Big Dipper played in slaves' road to freedom,
and that constellations are patterns in the sky

Standard 2D
The student understands the rapid growth of "the peculiar institution"
after 1800 and the varied experiences of African-American under slavery.
The student will be able to identify the various ways in which African-Americans
resisted the conditions of their enslavement and the consequences of enslavement.

Think critically and logically to make the relationships between
evidence and explanations.
Students should be able to review data, summarize data, and form logical
arguments about cause-and-effect relationships.

Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
Students develop the ability to listen to and respect the explanations
proposed by other students.

Earth in the solar system.
Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion.
Those motions explain phenomena such as position of constellations,
the day, the year, seasons, and eclipses.

Standard 3: Geography
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their
understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we
live  examining people, places, and environments over the Earth's
surface.

Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and
evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences,
ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of
established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and
written language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions
and judgments on experiences, ideas, information, and issues.

Science S1.1
Formulate questions independently with the aid of references appropriate
for guiding the search for explanations of everyday observations.

Science S3.2D
Formulate and defend explanations and conclusions as they relate to scientific
phenomena.

Science S3.2E
Form and defend a logical argument about cause-and-effect relationships
in an investigation.

Video:

Reading Rainbow #96: Follow the Drinking Gourd

Starfinder #20: The Constellations

Look Up #5: Looking Up at the Stars

Web sites:

National
Park Service: The Underground Railroad
http://www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr/
This Web site gives a comprehensive insight of the Underground Railroad.
By clicking on highlighted portions of a U.S. background map, students
are able to read short biographical sketches of African-Americans and
their involvement in aspects of U.S. History.

National
Geographic: The Journey
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.html
This site allows students to perform a simulation exercise in which
they are a slave planning an escape to freedom.

The
Underground Railroad Site: Routes 1860
http://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/Map.htm
This site allows students to view the routes used by fugitive slaves
attempting to reach freedom from the slave states.

Timeline
of Events: 1750 - 1939
http://www.hfmgv.org/education/smartfun/timeline/timeline.html
This is an interactive Web site giving students a view of what was happening
in U.S. history during the time the Underground Railroad was active.

Per pair of students:

Atlas with a physical map of the U.S.

Per student:

Pencil and paper

Data sheets

For the instructor:

A copy of the book
Follow the Drinking Gourd. Winter, Jeanette. Knopf, 1992. ISBN
0679819975.